All posts tagged ‘Hallmark’

Valentine’s Day is this week, and if you haven’t picked up something for your kids, then Hallmark’s Cupig and Until We Hug Again Bear are two great options. They’re cute, cuddly and heart-warming gifts that will make you and your child smile.

Cupig is part of their Valentine’s Day product line, and as the name suggests, he’s part pig and part cupid. There are little hearts on his nose and he’s got white wings on his back along with a little heart belly button. Press the button in his hand and he plays “Cupid Shuffle” and does a wiggly shuffle in time to the music. This is one that’s practically guaranteed to elicit giggles from your kids.

If you’re looking for a more personalized cuddly gift, then try Until We Hug Again Bear. He’s ready for Valentine’s Day with a big heart stitched onto his tummy and an audio message that you record. You can say whatever you like as a 30-second message your child can play again and again.

Until We Hug Again Bear, Image: Hallmark

I love Until We Hug Again Bear because you can save your message by locking it in until you want to say something new to record and save whenever you choose. This means you can leave a message for your little one that fits the situation, maybe wishing them luck on a big test when you’re out of town.

My kids fell in love with these when they saw them at our local Hallmark store. They worked with a couple of other kids to set an entire display of Cupigs dancing at once. My youngest, though, preferred the Until We Hug Again Bear. She wants one so she can hear my voice when I’m out of town and not miss me so much.

Cupig ($32.95) is only available through Valentine’s Day but Until We Hug Again Bear ($29.95) is sticking around so you can pick him up anytime. My kids will be getting these for Valentine’s Day and I know it’ll put smiles on their faces.

As with the other Story Buddy stuffed animals, Bell is an interactive toy that responds as you or your child reads aloud from one of her storybooks. You buy Bell with her first book, Bell’s Big Move, which introduces this cute character and tells the story of her move to Pineville.

We had quite a few entries in our Hallmark Keepsake Ornament, Recordable Storybook, and Text Band Giveaway, but there can only be one winner. Congratulations to Eric K. who picked out the TIE Interceptor and You’re A Hero! All the Ways You Save the Day recordable storybook.

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest and to the folks over at Hallmark for making this contest possible!

Once again Hallmark is debuting some fantastic new Keepsake ornaments at San Diego Comic-Con from July 11th-15th in San Diego, California.

This year they’ll have three very limited edition ornaments for sale at the convention. If you’re lucky enough to attend, then you’ll have a chance at 4-LOM and Zuckuss (Star Wars), A Human Hero (The Dark Knight Rises) and Cylon Centurion (Battlestar Galactica). The runs of each are limited 1000, 875 and 750 with prices from $25 to $35 so if you want these you better head to their booth in the Lucasfilm Pavilion first thing.

While you’re there, you’ll also get a sneak peek at some of the ornaments planned for 2013, get free autographs from one of the artists behind 4-LOM and Zuckuss and meet Bob Holt, the creator of hoops&yoyo. Can’t make it to San Diego Comic-Con? All is not lost. Hallmark is offering a special Comic-Con Gift Pack to one lucky GeekMom reader who will get a pair of the new Hallmark Text Bands and their choice of one Keepsake Ornament and one Recordable Storybook from a select list.

Thanks to everyone who entered our contest last week. There were some wonderful moments shared about your favorite ornaments, but in the end, there can be only on and our random winner is KtCallista who will be receiving her very own Jingle the Husky Pup.

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest and to the folks over at Hallmark for making this contest possible!

What child hasn’t hoped for a puppy under their tree on Christmas morning? Well, just in case you’re worried that Santa won’t come through you can have Jingle the Husky Pup there as backup. He isn’t just a stuffed animal, though, he’s also an interactive toy that reacts as you or your child reads through his storybook. His first book, Jingle All the Way, tells the tale of how little Jingle, who has no home, befriends the neighborhood kids and finally finds a home of his own with a little help from a guy in a sleigh.

As you read, certain lines are printed in red and they trigger appropriate responses from Jingle. He barks happily, whines when he’s sad and even sings. It didn’t take my kids long to figure out that the red words were the key and they began creating their own stories and inserting those lines where they wanted to make him perform on cue. Now they’ve got their own special Jingle stories and have big plans to write a bunch more.

You can purchase Jingle alone or with his first storybook and then add to the fun with his second book, A Snow Day for Jingle. In fact, there are a whole line of Jingle themed products available this holiday season and there’s even a movie airing on the Hallmark Channel on Friday, November 25th. And thanks to the good folks at Hallmark who provided me with Jingle for review, one of our readers will be winning a Jingle of their very own.

Simply leave a comment on this post by midnight on Thursday, November 24th, telling me what your favorite Hallmark ornament is and we’ll draw a random winner the following day. Good luck!

Like any self-respecting Geek, I know how to obsess over something, and one of my obsessions is decorating for the holidays. I limit myself to the fall build up to Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I don’t decorate for Easter, New Years, Halloween, etc. So every time I see something I like I get it. We have two tote boxes full of Thanksgiving “decorations,” and about five for Christmas. I will create things and purchase things to go along with my theme, and heaven help anyone who stands in my way.

Image: Wikipedia public domain

Somehow Michael Dorn has managed to become a Thanksgiving staple in our house, but I need some help confirming that he should rightfully be there. Best known for the role of Lieutenant Commander Worf on Star Trek: The Next GenerationandStar Trek: Deep Space Nine, he has been part of our Christmas tradition for many years now, for his portrayal of the sand man in Tim Allen’s Santa Clausemovies. Several years ago, I purchased the above bear from The Christmas Tree shops. It’s a Hallmark bear that tells the Hallmark version of the story of Thanksgiving, no violence included. The thing is, I swear it’s Michael Dorn’s voice telling the story. The first time I heard it, I ran around the house shrieking “It’s Worf! It’s Worf.” While my husband and sister-in-law both hear what I’m hearing, they are reluctant to commit. The box did not credit Michael Dorn, nor do any of the biographies I can find.

So help me please! Do you have this bear, and is it a Michael Dorn Thanksgiving?

One of the biggest challenges many families face is spending good, quality time together. Especially as children get older and become involved in sports and their own social lives, finding opportunities to just be with each other becomes more difficult. Sometimes, even though everyone is at home, each is engaged with one kind of screen or another so they might as well be miles apart. Computers, TVs, phones, game consoles, tablets, they all keep us entertained, but often in a solitary way. So, when Hallmark contacted me about participating in their BlogOut Challenge, I jumped at the chance.

The idea is a part of their Life is a Special Occasion campaign and encourages all of us to walk away from our screens for a day, or an afternoon, or even just a few hours and spend that time with our families. My family does spend a good deal of time together “doing things” so it’s not like we can’t disengage from our screens, but I will admit it can be a bit difficult. A lot of my work is online so the temptation to check things on my phone is overwhelming and when I find something that needs my attention it’s so very easy to pop open my laptop and take care of it while the kids play in the living room. I was definitely up for this challenge.

To get me started, they sent me a Hallmark Interactive Story Buddy and a Recordable Storybook for my two girls. The minute I took out the Story Buddy the kids were fascinated with her. We happened to receive Abigail, who is an adorable little plush bunny with a storybook all about how she wants to be a grown-up. You read the story out loud, and plush Abigail makes a comment after the last line on every page. I read this book to my kids, they read it to each other, and then they took turns reading it to every stuffed animal in their rooms. Even better, my oldest daughter figured out that it was the last sentence on the page that made Abigail speak, so she wrote her own little story to read and just inserted those lines to make Abigail talk.

We also spent an afternoon playing with the Recordable Storybook We’re Not Scared of Anything. The idea is for you, or your kids, to read the story and make a recording that will play as you turn the pages. You can do this as many times as you like, which has led to multiple recordings with all sorts of crazy voices. My job in this adventure was to make sound effects at all the right moments. I’m not sure we’ll ever have a finished version because every time they pull it out they have a new idea they want to test.

My initial plan was to spend an entire day free of screens, any of them, including my shiny new iPhone 4S, but this proved more difficult than I’d expected. So instead, we spent not one day, but several afternoons away from our screens. I found myself looking forward to a little scheduled one-on-one time with my family. In addition to playing with Abigail and the recordable book, we spent most of one afternoon cuddled in bed reading together. Another we made a fabulous disaster of the kitchen while decorating Halloween cookies. This weekend, we kept the kids up past their bedtimes playing their new favorite role-playing game, Mouse Guard, until we finally decided to be responsible parents and put them to bed.

We managed to take the idea of BlogOut and turn it into not just a single day, but something that we do nearly every afternoon. And really, that’s the idea, remembering to take time out from “life” to enjoy the everyday moments that make being a family special.

I’ve just returned from the geek extravaganza that is New York Comic Con, one of my favorite weekends of the year. Sure, it’s not as big as San Diego Comic-Con and it doesn’t have as many celebrity appearances, but that doesn’t make it any less fun. In fact, by losing some of the Hollywood razzle-dazzle it feels more genuine. Not to say that there aren’t celebrities, as Stan Lee, Mark Hamill and Robert Kirkman were there and if they don’t count as celebrities in your book, well then, you’re at the wrong convention all together. But more than the big names, big releases, and big movies, this one is about the smaller independent guys getting a chance to show their work.

Table after table of artists with prints, comics, and sketches were on display. One of the best parts of wandering through Artist Alley is that not only do you get to see a huge variety of work, from horror to fantasy to sci-fi and everything in between, but that the artists are there and ready to talk about their creations. I am always fascinated to see them working on commissioned pieces that take shape before your eyes in a matter of minutes. And they do it all in the middle of a ridiculously loud room, with people laughing and talking and bustling past in a blur. Somehow, these guys stay completely focused on what they’re working on, pausing only to talk when people stop to ask them a question and admire their work.

There were also a huge number of tables with things that weren’t really comics, but that the geeks of the world were sure to love. For all the vampire lovers out there (sparkly or otherwise) there were plush vampire babies complete with fangs and death certificates at Vamplets. If you were a gamer then you could check out the unbelievable case mods from the guys at Major League Mods. They turned an Xbox into a working R2-D2 that I entered to win and if I do, you will hear the screams of joy the world over. But my most favorite thing of all, was actually from a very well-known and not necessarily geeky company.

If you showed up at the Hallmark booth bright and early, then you had the chance to get your hands on a few convention exclusives. One of these was a glow-in-the-dark USS Defiant Keepsake ornament. No, not lights, glow in the dark, just like the stars you stuck on your bedroom ceiling as a kid (or as an adult, no judging). When I found out about this I was so excited, I think I scared the Hallmark guy (sorry about that) but this is THE coolest ornament ever. It will go on my tree this year in a place of honor along with the Enterprise, Captain Kirk and assorted shuttles and spaceships. New York Comic Con had something for everyone, and not only did it make my weekend, it made my Christmas!

Thanks to everyone who entered our contest last week. There were some wonderful and hilarious moments shared about your favorite ornaments, but in the end, there can be only two. Our two random winners are Aimee and Katrina!

They will each be receiving the Hallmark Keepsake Ornament “Showdown at the Cantina” and a selection of Maxine and hoops&yoyo gifts.

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest and to the folks over at Hallmark for making this contest possible!

Yes, it’s only August, but Hallmark ornaments are already out for purchase at stores. I freely admit that I’m one of the people that’s in the store as soon as I see that cute little Christmas display. I run inside and start checking to see which ones light up and which ones make noise. There is a chance that the folks at my local store see me coming and roll their eyes, because I have to press every button and hear each sound effect and every famous line spoken by the characters I love. A few weeks ago, back at San Diego Comic-Con, Hallmark had a wonderful booth set up with all their latest releases. The coolest part was the sneak peek of ornaments that aren’t due out until Christmas of 2012.

I snapped pictures of the little sneak peek cards, feeling vaguely like a spy. Although, I suppose my not-at-all-stealthy squeals of excitement were very un-spy-like. This year Hallmark started a new series of Lego Star Wars ornaments. The first in the series, Darth Vader is available now and next year you’ll be able to add an adorable Stormtrooper to your collection. No word yet on how many total ornaments in the series, but since this is the first year, now is the time to grab Vader so your collection can be complete.

The Time Traveling DeLorean from Back to the Future

If Star Wars isn’t your speed, what about a car that will take you Back to the Future? There will be a DeLorean ornament available next year and I’m sort of hoping that there will be a secret button that will activate a teeny, tiny flux capacitor and send me back in time. Or maybe I should move forward? I’ll have to think about that a bit.

The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters

And there is no question that I must have the world’s cutest evil monster adorning my tree. Yes, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters will also be coming out next year. I will put him on the very front of my tree and gaze at his evil cuteness while I roast real marshmallows in my fireplace.

Although you can only look at the pictures and count the days until these fantastic ornaments are available, thanks to the folks at Hallmark you can still win some great prizes right now! Two lucky winners will each receive a Showdown at the Cantina Keepsake Ornament and a variety of Maxine and hoops&yoyo gifts.

Just go to the end of this post and leave a comment telling us what your all-time favorite Hallmark ornament is and why. The contest will run through midnight on Friday, August 19th. Good luck!

So, I’m not heading down to Comic-Con until early, EARLY tomorrow morning. Seriously early. Gotta beat traffic and get there in time for the Attack of the Show! panel at 10 a.m.! That’s how I’m kicking off SDCC 2011 this year – but back here in L.A., I’m already so excited and jazzed up for it. Been watching everyone on twitter who’s already there talk about what they’re buying and what people are cosplaying as. My husband has been torturing me with pictures of collectibles from the show floor – all I had to do was copy and paste the word “WANT” and just keep texting that back to him. And then today, a package arrived on my doorstep from the folks at Hallmark – this year’s collectible Christmas Ornament is — are you ready for this? Showdown at the Cantina. I KNOW, RIGHT!??! The controversial scene where, in the original, Han Solo shoots Greedo first – and was later changed to Greedo shooting first so that Han could claim “self-defense.”

It came with batteries, so I popped them in and — Greedo said “Oota Goota, Solo?” — so that made me laugh really hard. And THEN I discovered that if you keep pushing the button, it PLAYS THE WHOLE SCENE. Because nothing sums up the spirit of Christmas more than murdering a bounty hunter! It’s magical. I love it so hard. I don’t know why, out of all the scenes in the six films, they chose this one, but I’m so glad they did. The Lucasfilm pavilion is always a must-stop for me, but now I have to earmark some cash to buy these for presents and find the rep who sent this to me so I can thank her personally.